TRM Labs Inc., a regtech startup based in San Francisco, has secured US$1.7 million in a seed funding round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Tapas Capital, Green D Ventures, The MBA Fund, and several strategic angel investors. The company said the funds will be used to expand its engineering team and enhance the capabilities of its platform.
Established in 2017, TRM Labs develops enterprise applications, developer tools, and intelligent protocols to help startups and teams launch and grow blockchain-based products.
Esteban Castaño, CEO and co-founder of TRM Labs, commented on the funding:
“We believe cryptocurrency can be a democratizing force, allowing anyone to exchange value and access financial services. To achieve that, it must be easier for everyone to remain compliant.
“Just as the internet enabled an explosion of new content, crypto is spawning an explosion of financial products and markets. We need regulatory and compliance infrastructure that can scale with this new world.”
TRM Labs’ initial product, Token Relationship Management (TRM), uses machine learning to help clients manage customer relationships and detect and block suspicious activity. The platform is designed to streamline on-chain anti-money laundering (AML) compliance for digital asset businesses and includes solutions for on-chain customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and customer relationship management.
In addition to TRM, the company is developing tools that leverage machine learning and millions of data points to automatically detect fraudulent activities such as money laundering and market manipulation.
TRM Labs recently deployed its analytics solution with TrustToken’s TrueUSD stablecoin. TrustToken is using TRM to segment core user groups accurately and identify which exchanges and channels are driving growth.
“The founders of TRM, Esteban Castaño and Rahul Raina, bring deep experience across enterprise software, blockchain, and product design,” said Spencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital. “We believe TRM can significantly accelerate crypto adoption by helping issuers and exchanges establish trust through compliance from Day 1.”
Blockchain Capital, originally known as Crypto Currency Partners, is a venture capital firm focused on blockchain-related companies. Founded in 2013 by Bart Stephens, Bradford Stephens, and Brock Pierce, the firm has invested in companies and projects including Civic, Circle, Coinbase, Paxos (formerly itBit), ShapeShift, Xapo, and the 0x open protocol.